


Snakes

by Hnikkar



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Angst, abuse undertones, leekie is gross thats basically a sum up of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 00:43:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2130612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hnikkar/pseuds/Hnikkar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>delphine pov. she and leekie talk about her relationship with cosima. fic is mostly about delphine's lonely position between leekie and cosima. also emotional manipulation n stuff. no specific point on the timeline</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snakes

**Author's Note:**

> not good with thinking of titles im sorry

Aldous’ voice was an itch, a snake, slithering under her skin.

“Dr Cormier.”

Delphine missed the time she was proud of the title she’d worked so hard to get. ‘Doctor’ had turned out to be more literal than she had anticipated.

“Aldous.”

There was no point addressing him by his title when it was just the two of them, Leekie was only playing when he called her by hers. What game, it didn’t matter. Not anymore.

“I was wondering when I’d be getting Cosima’s weekly report.”

“Oh!” her eyes bulged slightly and she tucked a curl out of her face. “I didn’t – I forgot – I didn’t expect you would need a – a–”

“Oh, no, no, of course not. At this point I think written reports seem a little inane, don’t you?”

Delphine nodded. She briefly scoured her mind for the definition of “inane” before deciding it probably didn’t matter.

“I was thinking we could just talk about it.”

“Yes, of course.”

“So?” He gestured.

“Ah, well, her condition, it–”

“I know the state of her illness, Delphine.”

A pause.

“I was hoping you could tell me more about,” he smiled then, his lips disappearing almost entirely, leaving his face with just cracks, “the nature of your relationship.”

“Oh.”

She could feel her cheeks reddening and for a moment cursed her body for betraying her. Only momentarily, before she remembered she could no longer be frustrated at her own body failing her. Not under the circumstances.

She frowned. “With all due respect, I don’t think–”

She was interrupted by Aldous’ laughter.

Delphine hated his laugh.

His laugh, his smile, his touch. Everything she craved from Cosima she despised when expressed through Aldous. She wished that, like a reptile, she could shed her skin, so that she could be something Aldous Leekie had never touched.

“Oh, no, no, no! I wouldn’t pry–” _Of course not_ , Delphine thought bitterly. “I meant, of course, the more – how should I say? – _emotional_ side.”

Of course. Delphine clenched her jaw and swallowed her thoughts. Of course, Delphine was jumping to conclusions. It wasn’t at all that he was following an old formula of purposely making her assume one thing and backtracking in order to make her feel stupid. No, _she_ was the pervert, jumping to such assumptions. It wasn’t at all that Aldous enjoyed making her feel uncomfortable, like she was one step behind, constantly stumbling, embarrassing herself. And that he, chivalrous Dr Leekie, was giving her the hand she needed to get back up.

No, she didn’t need Leekie to make her feel stupid anymore. She was doing that just fine on her own.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’ve noticed she’s been a little – well we all know she’s not herself but –” again, the laughter, this time with a sad undertone. Not sad for Cosima, though. Sad for himself, the deterioration of his subject. Delphine guessed she was the same. “–how can I say this – mean?”

“Mean?”

“Yes. To you. You don’t seem to be getting along as swimmingly as always.”

Her skin bristled.

“Well, ah,” she hesitated. “It is a difficult time, for both of us, Cosima especially.”

“You’re very devoted to your subject.”

It wasn’t a question.

“You have not known her long, and yet you put up with a fair bit.”

“As I did with you.”

A pause. That was a risk. Leekie smiled. There was a hint of anger there most would’ve missed. Bad as her judgement often was, this Delphine could pick up on. It was a skill she resented.

“Yes. A few risks you’ve taken for her, as well.”

A threat? Delphine had no idea how much Leekie knew, what lies were recognised and which left undetected.

“I was wondering,” he continued, “why is that?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, the blue shining through a little unnerving. He was genuinely intrigued, then. Delphine shifted under his gaze. Leekie wanted to play God, to create, to change, to take, to give. In a sense he already did, clones aside. As well as to create and change, Aldous Leekie knew how to claim. Delphine had been claimed well before she began to work with his creations. He had taken so much from her, and Cosima was the one thing that he had given that was of value.

“She is all I have.”

Delphine was keeping Cosima.


End file.
